Now my aim is to take this whole debate outside the high ground of morality because it doesn’t have anything to do with morality. Many women who I have helped have said they are generally against abortion but that their situation is ‘different’.

“Even if you are against abortion you might face a moment where your situation is ‘different’. My work is about ensuring there is a fundamental respect that a woman can make that decision for herself at that point in her life.”

Exactly. Rebecca Gomperts is right on the money and deserves our respect and support for, not only her insight, but her courage to put that into action.

Forcing someone to carry a pregnancy to terms against their will is in direct contradiction of bodily autonomy and even of it wasn’t it’s a dangerous pragmatic in a world where thousands die of botched unsafe, secret abortions. But beyond that, and I’m falling into the moral trap I’m trying to avoid, everyone draws the line somewhere else and to put a thick line down is near impossible. This is a grey, grey world and when dealing with someone’s uterus and contents thereof it’s best to take a policy of discretion.

And if abortion was illegal rich, priviledge people would still find ways out of it. In fact there are plenty of rumours of women in the anti-choice movement that have their own abortions and then go straight back to picketing and regarding all the other women in the clinic as whores- because their situation is “different”. It’s known as “the only moral abortion is my abortion” syndrome.

Yes, I have read that. Abortion to anti-choicers is a theoretical numbers game. I remember swallowing the argument that it’s okay to ban abortion even in the case of rape because statistically very few women get pregnant from rape (apparently.) Fine, but would you say that to the raped woman’s face? It is impossible to see women as individuals in their own rights and deny their bodily integrity. That’s why they are always trying to cast women who go through the procedure as The Other and their empathy is so divorced from reality they cannot even recognise it when in the same position. They must be _different_

So, if we can get as many women not to abort as possible that would be great. But I’m one of the few women who should have the opportunity to do so, ’cause I’m special. I need the status of my life to be as stable as it is now so that I can keep fighting for all those _other_ murdered babies?

Right. Sounds like those women who make careers of telling other women to stay home. Or it’s I can’t sacrifice my ambitions, education or income because I’m not a slut and therefore I actually matter. I concede that the anti-choice movement does have some valid concerns about abortion and that’s something we need to address instead of ignore, but if the slut-shaming was removed from their political screed the movement would be a thousand miles separated from what we have now.